Conrad Black Found Guilty On Four Counts

A Chicago jury has found Conrad Black guilty on four of thirteen chages, three days after a judge ordered them back into deliberation. The jury had said it could not reach a consensus on all of the 16 charges being brought against four executives of Hollinger, Inc.

However, in the mixed jury verdict, Black was acquitted of nine counts that included wire fraud and racketeering.

The former Hollinger chief once presided over an empire that included the Chicago Sun-Times, Toronto’s National Post, London’s Daily Telegraph, and Israel’s Jerusalem Post.

Now, Black—convicted today of pocketing money that should have gone to stockholders—faces up to 35 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.

Bloomberg reports:

Black, 62, was convicted today in Chicago of three fraud charges and obstruction of justice. Jurors acquitted him of nine charges. Three codefendants were convicted of the fraud charges.

The former executive was accused of stealing $60 million from Hollinger, once the world's third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers. Prosecutors said the money was disguised as fees he and two codefendants got for not competing with buyers of about $3 billion of newspapers Hollinger sold.

The three co-defendants were former Hollinger executives Peter Atkinson and John Boultbee, and attorney Mark Kipnis.